Hard Rockers POINT OF VIEW is one of the most active and long lasting bands in Dubai. Formed in the year 2005 on the desert dunes of UAE, POINT OF VIEW’s career was full of milestones. One particular milestone started in 2011 where the 5 piece ensemble built a strong relationship between them and Legendary Hard Rock icons Guns N’ Roses.

This relationship started back when Guns N Roses had a concert in Abu Dhabi at the Du Arena. At that time the band had a whole new lineup, except for front man Axel Rose, for the past decade.

During December that year, POINT OF VIEW got acquainted to the legendary guitarist of Guns N Roses at the time, Mr. Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. Over the next 2 years, they remained in close contact with him: he gave them guidance and advice through the tracking and recording of their debut album and on Oct 3rd 2012 he flew over to support them at their album release gig. He even recommended the band to the public in a great statement that ended up being a permanent watermark on the debut album (See Photo Below), so obviously he loved the band and their music.
“From the opening riff, I knew this album would rock. And it does. A great album filled with groove, melody, rock n roll, energy, all the way through to the blistering final guitar solo. And after listening to the whole CD, the only thing I could was … play it again ! – Ron Bumblefoot Thal (Ex Guns N Roses / Art Of Anarchy / Sons Of Apollo)”

THE 2013 HIT & MISS

In March 2013, POINT OF VIEW where nominated as a potential support act to Guns N Roses for their gig in Dubai that month, by the organizers. Things were going well but for undisclosed reasons, the band was replaced for the opening act by another band. But due to Point of View’s friendship with Mr. Bumblefoot, they had the chance to hang out with the band backstage. Despite losing their chance to open for Guns N Roses, this encounter turned out to be one of the most unforgettable and humbling experiences for Point of View, as this was their first live contact with GNR, whose members and crew welcomed so warmly and knew all about them, thanks to Bumblefoot.

And to add the cherry on the top, Just a few days later, Point of View won the Timeout Best Band Award 2013.

THE BUMBLEFOOT RELATIONSHIP CONTINUES

In the years to come, the friendship between Bumblefoot and the Point of View members grew stronger and turned into a beautiful amity, to the point they toured 7 cities in 2 weeks in India in June 2013 and played their own setlist with some GNR songs in between. The gigs would last for 2.5 hours. They also made several appearances together in 2014-2015 in Dubai and Bahrain.

THE SECOND COMING – GUNS N ROSES SUPPORT SLOT – MARCH 2017

Many changes were happening in 2014, with Bumblefoot leaving GNR and POV plotting their career path with a new album in the making and new goals in sight. Fast forward to March 2017, GNR announce their biggest concert tour ever: the “Guns N’ Roses Not in this Lifetime Reunion Tour”, during which they had scheduled a Dubai date at the Autism Arena.

It was exactly 4 years after the overturned opening act that POV was supposed to hold, and that year the band was approached again by Red Bull UAE and 117 Live to give them the opportunity they had missed. The band was chosen by Slash himself to support one of the biggest bands in the world on their biggest tour of their career.

POV played their soul out to 40000 attendees, who not only were dazzled by the show, but were also singing along with the band, a phenomenon that is not so common for support act bands. 117 Live and Red Bull were both very supportive to POV and appreciated the effort the band must have put in to play in front such a big crowd. The night registered as the most important night ever in the band’s career and had their fanbase grow massively overnight.

The band, having paid its dues, has been moving forward since, with a new album in the making and tour dates scheduled for late 2018 and 2019. The tour will start in Lebanon on Nov 10th and then will continue worldwide (Nepal / Japan / Bhutan / Burma / India / Turkey / Scandanavia etc.

POINT OF VIEW with GUNS N ROSES 2017

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